Cell culture unit and cell culture device including the same

ABSTRACT

There is provided a cell culture device, which includes a plurality of cell culture units, in which the cell culture unit includes: a cell culture tub that defines a culture space for cultivating cells, contains culture medium in the culture unit, and has an air layer above the culture medium; a drainage channel that is connected to the cell culture tub to discharge used culture medium to the integral drainage channel; an open culture medium reservoir that supplies new culture medium into the cell culture tub; and a droplet generator that is disposed between the cell culture tub and the open culture medium reservoir and supplies the culture medium from the open culture medium reservoir to the cell culture tub, using negative pressure of the air layer generated when the used culture medium is discharged.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a cell culture unit and a cell culturedevice including the same, and more particularly, a cell culture unitthat can constantly maintain a cell proliferation rate and a cellactivity, and a cell culture device including the cell culture unit.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, cell culture means that cell tissue is extracted frommulti-cellular organism under an aseptic condition, and then culturedand proliferated in a culture medium.

A culture of group of cells, a culture of a small organ, and a cultureof a phyton from one cell are all possible through the use of variouscell culture methods.

A cell culture may be performed for various purposes, such as thecollection of additional by-products of a cell s metabolism, theproduction of virus vaccine, a pre-meditated cell culture for producingartificial organs, the production of medicine and medical supplies bythe genetic manipulation of animal cells, or breeding by the blending ofplant cells.

Plant cells can be easily cultured due to a high viability generated bytheir photosynthesis. However, a culture of animal cells generally needsa culture ground containing nutrients, such as amino acid, sugars,mineral salts, vitamins, etc. In order to effectively culture animalcells, various culture methods according to each cell s properties havebeen developed according to the properties of each cell, such ashybrodomas or embryonic stem cells.

However, there are methods which have been used until now for the massculture of adhesive cells, such as fibroblastoid or epithelial-likecells. The yield of a culture according to the existing methods is lowand a long period culture is difficult.

A certain space for culturing cells and a cell culture medium forsupplying nutrients to cells are needed to culture cells. In particular,the cell culture medium and various gases should be injected into theculture space to be used in culturing cells, and then changed regularlyin order to maintain cellular tissues in a fresh condition. Therefore,the cell culture device should be configured to easily perform thecontinuous supplying and wasting processes of the culture medium andvarious gases.

To change the culture medium, the culture medium is sucked into apipette, injected into the culture space, and then is wasted by usingthe pipette. However, a method of using a pipette has a high risk oflosing cells, and cannot easily change the culture medium, so the methodof using a pipette is inefficient.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Problem

An aspect of the present invention provides a cell culture unit that canmaintain a constant cell proliferation rate and a cell activity, and acell culture device including the same.

Solution to Problem

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided acell culture unit, which includes: a cell culture tub that defines aculture space for cultivating cells, contains culture medium in theculture space, and has an air layer above the culture medium; a drainagechannel that is connected to the cell culture tub to discharge usedculture medium; an open culture medium reservoir that supplies newculture medium into the cell culture tub; and a droplet generator thatis disposed between the cell culture tub and the open culture mediumreservoir and supplies the culture medium from the open culture mediumreservoir to the cell culture tub, using negative pressure of the airlayer generated when the used culture medium is discharged.

The cell culture tub may have grooves where the cells proliferate inthree-dimensional lump shapes.

The drainage channel may have a side channel formed along the edge ofthe cell culture tub and a straight channel connected with the sidechannel.

One or more drainage channels may be formed.

A valve for selectively opening/closing the drainage channel may beprovided in the drainage channel.

The open culture medium reservoir may have an inclined side.

The droplet generator may have one or more droplet outlets through whichthe culture medium is supplied in droplet shapes from the open culturemedium reservoir to the cell culture tub.

The droplet generator may be formed of a porous thin layer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda cell culture device, which includes: a plurality of cell cultureunits; and integral drainage channel connecting each of the cell cultureunits, in which the cell culture unit includes: a cell culture tub thatdefines a culture space for cultivating cells, contains culture mediumin the culture space, and has an air layer above the culture medium; adrainage channel that is connected to the cell culture tub to dischargeused culture medium to the integral drainage channel; an open culturemedium reservoir that supplies new culture medium into the cell culturetub; and a droplet generator that is disposed between the cell culturetub and the open culture medium reservoir and supplies the culturemedium from the open culture medium reservoir to the cell culture tub,using negative pressure of the air layer generated when the used culturemedium is discharged.

The integral drainage channel may be provided with a resistor to adjustthe flow rate of each drainage channel.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

As set forth above, according to exemplary embodiments of the invention,the culture medium is contained in the open reservoir and supplied tothe cell culture tub through the droplet generator. Therefore, it ispossible to easily supply a variety of samples and prevent the culturemedium or sample from being contaminated by dispersion.

Further, since it is possible to remove wastes created from the cellsthemselves by flowing the used culture medium through the drainagechannel, it is possible to constantly keep the concentration ofby-products created by the cells in the culture medium. Accordingly, itis possible for cells to proliferate under conditions similar to theinside of a human body. This improves reliability in vitro diagnosis, ora toxicity test of drugs or raw materials of cosmetics.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and other advantages of thepresent invention will be more clearly understood from the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is schematic side cross-sectional view showing a cell cultureunit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view showing the cellculture unit, taken along line A-A′of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a cell culture unitaccording to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic upper plan view showing a cell culture deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, theembodiments of the present invention may be modified in various ways andthe scope of the present invention is not limited to the followingembodiments. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are providedso that those skilled in the art may more completely understand thepresent invention. Therefore, the shape and size of the components maybe exaggerated in the drawings for more clear explanation and thecomponents indicated by the same reference numerals in the drawings arethe same component.

FIG. 1 is schematic side cross-sectional view showing a cell cultureunit according to an embodiment of the present invention and FIG. 2 is aschematic vertical cross-sectional view showing the cell culture unit,taken along line A-A′of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a cell culture unit according to anembodiment of the present invention includes a cell culture tub 10, adrainage channel 20, an open culture reservoir 30, and a dropletgenerator 40.

The cell culture tub 10 defines a culture space for cultivate cells andthe culture space is filled with culture medium C1.

The culture medium C1 is filled in the culture space of the culture tub10, but is not filled in the entire culture space. Accordingly, an airlayer A is formed above the culture medium.

The cell tub 10 is not limited to a specific structure, as long as itcan define a culture space, and may have various shapes, such ascylindrical and prism shapes.

The cell culture tub may have grooves 11 on the bottom. In the grooves11, cells can proliferate in a three-dimensional lump shape.

The drainage channel 20 through which the culture medium is discharge isconnected to the cell culture tub 10. Used culture medium used toproliferate and activate the cells is discharged through the drainagechannel. One or more drainage channels may be formed. Further, it ispossible to control the flow rate of the discharged culture medium byadjusting the length and cross-sectional area of the drainage channel.

The drainage channel 20 may have a side channel 21 formed along the edgeof the cell culture tub and a straight channel 22 connected with theside channel. The used culture medium in the cell culture tub can bedischarged at a uniform flow rate through the side channel. Since theflow of the culture medium influences the proliferation and activationof the cells, it is important that the flow rate is uniform.

Further, a valve (not shown) for selectively opening/closing thedrainage channel may be provided in the drainage channel 20.

The open culture reservoir 30 supplies the cell culture tub 10 with newculture medium C. The open culture medium reservoir is partially open tothe outside.

The droplet generator 40 is disposed between the cell culture tub 10 andthe open culture reservoir 30 to supply new culture medium from the openculture reservoir to the cell culture tub, as the used culture medium isdischarged.

In detail, as the used culture medium is discharged through the drainagechannel 20, negative pressure is generated while the air layer Aincreases in the cell culture tub, such that the new culture medium inthe open culture medium reservoir 30 is supplied to the cell culture tub10 in a droplet shape through a droplet outlet 41 of the dropletgenerator 40. The droplet generator 40 may be formed of a porous thinlayer.

In this embodiment, new culture medium is supplied in quantities equalto those of the culture medium discharged out of the cell culture tub bythe open reservoir. Therefore, the cell culture environment ismaintained with a log of nutrition and little waste.

The existing cell culture methods cultivate cells in stationary culturemedium and supply the culture medium to a cell culture region through apipe or a channel connected with a closed reservoir.

According to those methods, since the pipe or the channel is directlyconnected with the cell culture region, the culture medium or samplescan be contaminated by dispersion.

According to this embodiment, however, the culture medium is containedin an open reservoir and supplied to the cell culture tub through thedroplet generator. Therefore, it is possible to easily supply a varietyof samples and prevent the culture medium or sample from beingcontaminated by dispersion.

Further, since it is possible to remove wastes created from the cellsthemselves by flowing the used culture medium through the drainagechannel, it is possible to constantly keep the concentration ofby-products created by the cells in the culture medium. Accordingly, itis possible to for cells to proliferate under conditions similar to theinside of a human body. This improves reliability in vitro diagnosis, ora toxicity test of drugs or raw materials of cosmetics.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a cell culture unitaccording to another embodiment of the present invention.

The same reference numerals as in the above embodiment indicate the samecomponent and the other components are mainly described.

A cell culture unit according to this embodiment includes a cell culturetub 10, a drainage channel 20, an open culture medium reservoir 30, anda droplet generator 40.

The open culture medium reservoir 30 may have an inclined side 31. Theside 31 may be formed to become narrow from the cell culture tub towardthe outside. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the culture mediumfrom spattering or vaporizing in the process of injecting new culturemedium into the open culture medium reservoir.

Further, the droplet generator 40 disposed between the cell culture unit10 and the open cell culture medium reservoir 30 may have one or moredroplet outlets 41.

FIG. 4 is a schematic upper plan view showing a cell culture deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, a cell culture device according to this embodimentincludes a plurality of cell culture units 110 and integral drainagechannels 120 connecting each of the cell culture units.

The plurality of cell culture units may be formed on a substrate 100.

The cell culture unit, as described above, includes a cell culture tub10, a drainage channel 20, an open culture medium reservoir 30, and adroplet generator 40.

The drainage channels are integrated by the integral drainage channel120.

The integral drainage channel 120 may be provided with a resistor toadjust the flow rate of each drainage channel. It is possible tomaintain uniform flow rate of the culture medium discharged from thecell culture units by adjusting the resistance value of the resistor.

Therefore, it is possible to keep the culture environments of each cellculture unit the same, or produce cell culture environments inaccordance with designed conditions for each cell culture unit.

While the present invention has been shown and described in connectionwith the exemplary embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that modifications and variations can be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

1. A cell culture unit, comprising: a cell culture tub that defines aculture space for cultivating cells, contains culture medium in theculture space, and has an air layer above the culture medium; a drainagechannel that is connected to the cell culture tub to discharge usedculture medium; an open culture medium reservoir that supplies newculture medium into the cell culture tub; and a droplet generator thatis disposed between the cell culture tub and the open culture mediumreservoir and supplies the culture medium from the open culture mediumreservoir to the cell culture tub, using negative pressure of the airlayer generated when the used culture medium is discharged.
 2. The cellculture unit of claim 1, wherein the cell culture tub has grooves wherethe cells proliferate in three-dimensional lump shapes.
 3. The cellculture unit of claim 1, wherein the drainage channel has a side channelformed along the edge of the cell culture tub and a straight channelconnected with the side channel.
 4. The cell culture unit of claim 1,wherein one or more drainage channels are formed.
 5. The cell cultureunit of claim 1, wherein a valve for selectively opening/closing thedrainage channel is provided in the drainage channel.
 6. The cellculture unit of claim 1, wherein the open culture medium reservoir hasan inclined side.
 7. The cell culture unit of claim 1, wherein thedroplet generator has one or more droplet outlets through which theculture medium is supplied in droplet shapes from the open culturemedium reservoir to the cell culture tub.
 8. The cell culture unit ofclaim 1, wherein the droplet generator is formed of a porous thin layer.9. A cell culture device, comprising: a plurality of cell culture units;and integral drainage channels connecting each of the cell cultureunits, wherein the cell culture unit includes: a cell culture tub thatdefines a culture space for cultivating cells, contains culture mediumin the culture space, and has an air layer above the culture medium; adrainage channel that is connected to the cell culture tub to dischargeused culture medium to the integral drainage channel; an open culturemedium reservoir that supplies new culture medium into the cell culturetub; and a droplet generator that is disposed between the cell culturetub and the open culture medium reservoir and supplies the culturemedium from the open culture medium reservoir to the cell culture tub,using negative pressure of the air layer generated when the used culturemedium is discharged.
 10. The cell culture device of claim 9, whereinthe integral drainage channel is provided with a resistor to adjust theflow rate of each drainage channel.